“Oh, let me,” volunteered Betty. “Somebody will have to show me how the first time, but I want to learn.”
So Madeline and Betty went off to find the trunks and have them sent to the station hotel, where Mrs. Hildreth had decided to stay while they were in Glasgow.
“It was too comical for anything,” Betty told Babe afterward. “They just dumped all the trunks and bags in a heap on the platform, and each person picked out whatever ones he pleased, and said they were his, and got a porter to carry them away for him. The English people must be very honest. Imagine doing that way in America!”
“We’ve been ‘booked’ for rooms at the hotel,” said Babe, laughing over the queer word. “And that’s luggage that you’re carrying,—not baggage any more, please remember. So come along and have lunch and then we can go out and see the sights.”
Mrs. Hildreth was quite willing that the girls should explore Glasgow without her, and spend the next day in Ayr, if they pleased.
“I don’t need to worry about you,” she told them, “for I’m sure you are all too sensible to do any foolish or foolhardy things. On the continent you may have to be a little more particular, but here and in England you can do about as you like.”
“I wish you could come too, Mrs. Hildreth,” said Betty, when they were ready to start.
Mrs. Hildreth smiled at her. “So do I, my dear. Just as soon as I’m a little rested, I shall be delighted to go with you whenever you’ll take me. I quite look forward to seeing Europe in such good company.”
“Poor little mother!” said Babbie, as they went off. “She never had a chance to do as she liked when she was a girl. She always had nurses and governesses trailing around after her, and then she went to a fashionable school in Boston, where you take walks two and two and never stir without a chaperon. After that she had to ‘come out’ in society, though she hated it as much as Bob does, and wanted to study art in Paris. But her mother thought that was all nonsense for a girl who had plenty of money. So when I wanted to go to college mother let me, and she often says she’s awfully glad that my best friends are girls who can go ahead and have a good time anywhere—not the helpless society kind.”
“I say, where are we aiming for?” Babe demanded suddenly.